The Scariest Days of Our Lives
by Blue Leah
Summary: Ep. 2.20 Big Time Break-Up reveals Carlos has a metal plate in his head. This is the story of how it got there as told by Logan.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't usually write author's notes at the beginning. Anyway… I like to read pre-show BTR stories, when the boys were kids. One moment that I find missing from these stories is how Carlos gets a metal plate in his head. It's episode 2.20 **_**Big Time Break-Up**_** when Logan's trying to get rid of Helmet. He and Kelly try to shock Carlos so he associates the pain with the helmet, but Carlos tells them it won't work because of the metal plate in his head. He wasn't born with it in his head, so there had to be some dangerous incident that caused it. So, I started thinking that I'll write the story. My plan is for this to not be a very long story. I'd go with a one-shot but that would make it incredibly long so it'll be a few chapters…how many, I'm not sure, but definitely not as long as my other multi-chapter fics.**

* * *

This is the story of one of the scariest days of my life. My friends are always doing dangerous things to get themselves hurt and in trouble, but this was the biggest injury any of us ever had to face.

"Tag, you're it," Kendall tapped Carlos on the right shoulder as he ran down the hall of our elementary school toward the playground.

"No running in the halls," I said quietly right as Kendall ran into our teacher, Mrs. Donahue.

"Listen to your friend, Kendall, or you'll be sitting with me inside the classroom while your classmates are outside." No, she wouldn't leave us unsupervised. Most of the fifth grade classes had recess at the same time so other teachers would be outside.

Kendall quietly agreed, but the very second he stepped onto the dirt of the playground he took off. Carlos followed hot on his heels. James ran after them, but I decided to walk.

After bending down to tie my shoe I heard someone cry. I stood up and noticed Jenny Tinkler on the ground rubbing her knee. Carlos looked to be apologizing to her while Kendall gained distance. Apparently not seeing him stop James almost barreled into Carlos.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah." She lifted her hand to reveal just a red spot on her knee. "I fall down all the time."

Boy, that was the truth. Just this morning she tripped on her way inside the classroom and then almost brought an entire bookshelf down in the library.

I nodded and went back to following my friends. Kendall had made it to the metal geometric dome climber and was already two rungs up. Carlos grabbed on to a bar and climbed behind him. I made it to the equipment just in time to see Kendall reach the top and flip himself over so he was hanging upside down inside the dome by his knees. James had climbed two rungs and sat there watching our two buddies at the top.

When Carlos reached the top he slowly let go and stood up as tall as he could.

"Hey, look at me. I'm taller than Kendall!" He raised his arms in the air.

"CARLOS GARCIA!" Mrs. Donahue shouted causing Carlos to flinch and lose his balance. His hands went down and he quickly righted himself.

"Are you okay?" I called up to him.

"Yeah," he called back trying to stand up again.

"Get down from there!" Mrs. Donahue appeared next to me.

"Y'know, the longer I hang here, the faster the blood rushes to my face," Kendall commented pulling himself up into a sitting position on the top of the dome.

"You know you're not allowed to stand on the top of the dome like that," Mrs. Donahue continued. "If you don't come down right now you won't get detention and have to sit inside during recess tomorrow."

"Can I sit on top like Kendall?"

"May I?"

"What?"

"Yes, but no standing!"

And that's when it happened. Carlos made to turn around and drape his legs through the bar just like Kendall, but what he didn't know was that his left shoe had come untied. He tried to move his left foot so he could bend down into a sitting position, but the shoelace was caught under his right foot. He lost his balance and fell forward hitting arms, legs, torso, and head on various parts of the metal bars on his way down finally landing with a sickening thud on the hard packed dirt.

At that moment I heard a cry I knew didn't come from Carlos. I had to ignore it as he needed my attention more. But, what could I do? I was just ten years old! Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. He was seriously hurt. My best friend Carlos Garcia was seriously—no, critically—injured.

I later learned the cry came from Kendall. The shock of Carlos's fall caused him to lose his grip on the bars and he fell through the dome landing on his left arm.

I had watched a medical program on The Discovery Channel last night even though my parents thought I was too young to understand it and that it would give me nightmares. It was on this man who fell from a tall building and instead of dying suffered a traumatic head injury. It made him forget how to do normal things like tying his shoes, writing, and feeding himself. Was that going to be Carlos from now on?

"This is why you kids are not allowed to stand atop the dome or the monkey bars or any of the other playground equipment," Mrs. Donahue muttered.

I rushed to Carlos's side to assess for any injuries. Not knowing if there was a spinal cord injury, hoping to high heaven there's not, I couldn't move him, but I could look over what I saw.

"Don't touch him!" Another teacher reminded me. "An ambulance is on its way." She pushed me out of the way.

I stumbled into the crowd of students gathered around us. James helped Kendall, who was cradling his left arm, out of the dome structure and they came to stand next to me.

"Is he…dead?" James whispered to me.

"No, he's breathing, but this is really bad." Part of me wanted to roll my eyes or give James a sarcastic reply to his question, but the other part, the bigger part, was more worried about Carlos's condition. He wasn't dead, but I had no idea what state he'd be in when he woke up, if he woke up.

EMT arrived. Two men, one looked older than my dad, but the other looked kind of young. I hoped he wasn't too new and didn't know what he was doing. The older guy placed a brace around Carlos's neck in case it was broken. Better to be safe than sorry. They turned him over so that he was lying on his back. His left ankle was already swelling, I could tell from where I stood, and blood dripped out of his nose. I think I could see blood caked near the top left of his head, but it could have just been the way the sun shined at that angle.

"Are you hurt?" The young EMT asked Kendall.

"Just my arm. N-nothing like Carlos."

"We'll take you with us so we can check you out, too. Okay, kid?"

"Y-you don't have to."

"No problem. It's our job."

They loaded Carlos on the stretcher and into the ambulance which had pulled up on the playground as close as it could get. The young EMT helped Kendall get into the ambulance as well.

"Can we go, too?" James asked.

"Only if you're family," the older EMT answered.

"He's our brother."

"Let's go call your parents." Mrs. Donahue ushered us away from the ambulance. Once we had gone a few feet we watched as the siren and lights turned on and they drove away.

* * *

**If you're wondering what a geometric dome climber is you can see a picture here: www dot buylifetime dot com / imageeditor / 101301 dot jpg ? ImageSize = Large (just take out all the spaces and replace the dot with a period). You've probably seen them on school playgrounds but had no idea what to call them. I didn't either until I looked them up for this story! I thought about using the monkey bars instead but then the image of this piece of playground equipment came into my head and it just screamed "More dangerous. Bigger injury." **

**As for Kendall's fall, I wanted it to happen when he was hanging upside down, but as I wrote, I realized (and had him say) that he was hanging upside down too long. But, he still fell.**


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as the ambulance disappeared we were ushered into the nurse's office just to make sure we were okay and to use the phone. Mrs. Donahue first called Carlos's parents. She was only able to get Mrs. Garcia on the phone, but Mrs. Garcia must have called Mr. Garcia for they were both currently sitting next to James and me in the hospital waiting room. They were both crying. Adults aren't supposed to cry!

After contacting a Garcia, Mrs. Knight was called. She, currently in an examination room with Kendall , had to leave her waitressing job early. Katie, Kendall's five year old sister, sat out here with us. Mrs. Knight had picked her up from kindergarten early because she didn't know how long she'd be at the hospital and she didn't have anyone to watch her.

My mom was called next. She wasn't working that day so she was able to takes James and me to the hospital. We wouldn't have had it any other way. Mrs. Donahue said we were excused from school anyway. Neither of us was hurt, but we'd both had a traumatic experience involving one of our best friends.

James's mom had been contacted and she was busy working, as she always was, so she gave her permission to allow James to be dismissed with my mom.

That is how I ended up in the waiting room of the local hospital with James, Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, my mom, and Katie. No one was talking. The Garcias were crying. Katie was biting her nails. James stared at the tiles on the floor tapping his foot to an undistinguishable rhythm. For some odd reason I was doing multiplication tables in my head. If I continued thinking 4x3=12, 4x4=16 I didn't have to think about what happened to Carlos. Just think about the next math problem. 4x5=20.

"Big Brother!" Katie exclaimed bringing me out of my weird math thoughts.

Kendall walked towards the group with his left forearm in a white cast.

"Won't be playing hockey for six weeks," he sighed hugging Katie who had run straight into his arms.

"Any news?" Mrs. Knight asked taking over Katie's chair.

"He's still in surgery," My mom answered.

"If I hadn't tagged him as it and made him follow me none of this would have happened."

"You can't blame yourself," Kendall's mom rubbed his back as he sat in the empty chair between her and James. Katie fell into her mother's lap.

"She's right," Mrs. Garcia said. "Carlos is a rambunctious boy who gets hurt a lot." Saying this caused her to sob harder.

"Carlos Garcia?" The doctor chose that time to make his appearance. We all looked up at him expectantly as he began to speak. "I'm Dr. Grimes, the head surgeon on Carlos's case. We're not done with the surgery. It's a lot more intensive than we thought. He's suffered a sprained left ankle, bruised ribs, bruises up and down both legs, bruised tailbone, and a broken right arm. As for his head, we won't know the extent of the injuries until he wakes up. He cracked the left side of his skull and there is bleeding. We're working on patching things up at the moment."

"What does this mean?" I asked.

"It means he cracked his skull, there's some blood, and we don't know how bad the damage is until he wakes up."

"Is he going to have amnesia and not know how to do things?"

"We don't know. I'm sorry. I have to get back to Carlos now."

"You should have never watched that show last night," my mom said as soon as the doctor walked away. "It's put too many thoughts in your head."

"Mom, I need to know these things if I want to be a doctor when I grow up."

"But, you don't need to be watching those shows at your age."

Honestly, what was wrong with the show I watched? It wasn't scary. It did show bits and pieces of the guy's surgery, but it didn't bother me. I was intrigued by the details. They had to go into the man's skull and…well, they had to do some repair work, I'll put it that way.

"It's what they're doing to Carlos now."

"Is he…is he going to be damaged?" James asked quietly.

"I don't know." I wish there was a better answer I could give, but I truly didn't know. I wasn't a doctor, yet. I was just ten years old.

"He's going to be fine," Kendall said.

"You don't know that," I replied.

Out of nowhere James obtained a black magic marker and began scribbling on Kendall's cast without even saying a word.

"When I become famous that's going to be worth a butt load of money."

"Boat load," my mom automatically corrected.

"Whatever."

James handed me the marker and I signed my name near his.

"I never gave you two permission," Kendall spoke up.

"Like I said when I become famous your cast will be worth tons."

"My turn!" Katie grabbed the marker and wrote her name "Katie Knight" in big block letters. She handed the marker to her mother who scribbled "Love, Mom."

After my mom and the Garcias added their signatures to Kendall's cast, Dr. Grimes found us again and brought us to a private discussion room. There were only four chairs. The parents took them with Katie sitting in her mom's lap and us boys standing around them.

"The surgery on Carlos was a success."

I glanced at Mrs. Garcia. She had a wavery watery smile on her face. Mr. Garcia squeezed her shoulder.

"There was some swelling of the brain. He cracked the left side of his skull. We removed a small portion along the crack to relieve pressure and bring the swelling down." Dr. Grimes pointed to the upper left section of his head indicating where the crack was located in Carlos. "Unless there are unforeseen complications we shouldn't have to do anything else but close him up hopefully in a week's time. Carlos is currently sleeping in ICU. You can visit him, but only two at a time."

Without any conversation Mr. and Mrs. Garcia slowly stood up and followed the doctor out of the discussion room. We were allowed to move into the ICU waiting room, but no one else got up.

"What does that mean?" Kendall asked. "His brain swelling and…if they removed part of his skull does that mean the brain is exposed?"

"I'm not sure," his mom responded.

About ten minutes later we found out. After Carlos's parents returned they let James, Kendall, and me visit him together as long as we promised to be quiet. That was an easy promise to make as none of us felt like doing or saying much of anything.

Slowly we made our way through the double doors and into the ICU. I think all three of us were afraid of what we would see, but no one said anything. I know I was.

"There's his room." Kendall pointed to the third room on the right. A nurse walked out as we stepped closer. I glanced into the open room of a patient next to him. This patient was awake with an oxygen mask on, watching something on the television.

Carlos's room was quiet except for the beep, beep of the EKG machine and another machine I was unsure of what it was called. Sticking out of his head was a catheter to help with the swelling. It drained into a bag, which was, well, it was not something I wanted to look at the moment. Stuck into his right arm near his elbow as an IV feeding him either medicine or fluid, I was unsure. Another IV was on his right hand giving him whatever the other IV wasn't. He was wrapped up in a blanket so I couldn't actually see, but the bump along where his left leg should be indicated that his ankle was probably resting inside an air cast. The scariest thing, aside from seeing the catheter sticking out from his head was that the entire top of his head was wrapped in bandages and on his face was a ventilator mask. Could he not breathe on his own?

"If he'd been wearing his helmet he wouldn't be in this predicament," Kendall said softly.

"Mrs. Donahue just had to take it away this morning," James muttered.

I nodded knowing it was Carlos's fault for throwing it around the room and hitting a girl in the shoulder. We weren't allowed to wear hats in school so technically Carlos wasn't allowed to wear his helmet but Mrs. Donahue allowed it as long as it didn't cause a distraction. I'd say this morning it caused one. She promised she'd give it to him before he went home at the end of the day, but now, I don't know.

We stood there watching Carlos sleep. His chest rose up and down underneath the light hospital blanket. Carlos and I were both smaller than James and Kendall and yes, I was an inch or two taller than Carlos, but the guys still considered me the smallest of the group. However, today, lying in the hospital bed, with all the wires and bandages, Carlos looked so small.

What would he be like when he woke up?

* * *

**I drew a diagram to help me see where Carlos could possibly hurt himself in the fall. I added nothing outrageous to his fall. At one point it looked like he could hit his butt on the piece where bars connect. That's how he got a bruised tailbone. I wanted to explain that but couldn't find a good way to do that in the story. Also, I'm not a doctor nor do I do anything in that field. I have done the research and have tried my best to make the doctor sound as professional as possible, but I do not have any experience with head injuries (I do have experience waiting for someone to come out of surgery, though).**


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Friday, our parents let us stay home from school. James and I gathered at Kendall's house where his mom said he needed to rest. We sat around on his bed waiting. Waiting for 2PM when ICU visiting hours would resume and Mrs. Knight would take us to the hospital. Both of my parents and James's mom had to work today, so they were unavailable to take us (James's parents are divorced and his dad probably had to work, too, but I didn't know). Mrs. Knight was missing work to take care of Kendall. She was such a great mom. Don't tell my mom, but sometimes I wished Mrs. Knight was my mom. I loved my mom, don't get me wrong, but she wasn't as motherly as Mrs. Knight. Kendall sure was lucky to have her.

"I'll drop you off at the hospital, pick up Katie from school, and then be back for you three," Mrs. Knight said as we rushed to her car parked in the driveway. After a lunch of turkey & cheese sandwiches which James, Kendall, and I were too nervous or excited to finish, we were on our way to Carlos. "You better be good in ICU. You're only ten and they usually only let two visit at a time."

"We know, Mom," Kendall said a little rudely. "I love you," he added.

"I know," Mrs. Knight sighed probably because even just three of us could be a handful. My friends weren't troublemakers so much as they were bundles of energy ready to explode.

As soon as we made it to the hospital and exited Mrs. Knight's car we ran inside only to be stopped by Kendall.

"We're ten years old. We're in the hospital without adult supervision. We really do need to be careful or they may just kick us out."

"OK," James answered. Kendall gave him a look. "OK!" He gave him one of his patented James Diamond looks. Yes, at ten years old he had mastered that look. I can't describe it, but if you talk to him you most likely have been given the look at some point.

We walked. I know part of me wanted to run and see Carlos's condition as quickly as I could, but another part wanted to walk as slowly as possible and prolong what we were all afraid of.

"Shh," Kendall indicated after we stepped off the elevator and arrived at the double door entrance of the ICU. He pushed those double doors and we stepped inside the quiet place bustling with nurse activity. As we made our way to the third door on the left, aka Carlos's room, I noticed the man in the room next door was no longer there.

"Here we go," James said once we approached the door. The door was open and there's also a huge window so the nurses can see in at all times, but none of us were looking in that direction. I was afraid of what lay beyond the door and I assumed James and Kendall were, too.

The three of us stepped inside at the same time to see…

"Carlos!" Kendall exclaimed a little loudly.

"Hey, buddy!" James said.

"Hey," I spoke.

Carlos blinked his eyes a few times before showing any other kind of reaction. Honestly, I was surprised to see him awake.

Tentatively, we stepped closer.

"Do you remember what happened?" Kendall asked.

Carlos blinked again and shook his head very slowly no.

"What do you remember?"

He shook his head again.

"Carlos, do you remember us?" I asked.

He didn't respond. He just looked at the three of us solemnly.

"I'm Kendall."

"James."

"Hor-Logan!" I said quickly remembering the name James's mom gave me. Honestly, what were my parents thinking naming me Hortense? I used to get picked on a lot because of that name. But anyway, back to Carlos.

"Horlog'n!" Carlos laughed. It wasn't a true genuine laugh, but it was something showing he got some kind of pleasure out of me butchering my name.

"No, no, no. Just Logan!"

"Horlogan," James repeated. "I like that."

I groaned.

"Kindle," Carlos said.

"Yes?"

"Kindle," he repeated.

"Are you okay, Carlos?"

He shook his head grimacing.

"Does your head hurt?" I quickly asked.

Tears welled up in Carlos's eyes.

"I don' remmer!" He wailed.

James, Kendall, and I all wrapped our arms around our injured best friend. It broke my heart to see him this way. I wish there was something I could do. I wish I was already a doctor and knew how to treat Carlos.

"You remember who we are?" I asked pulling away to look at Carlos.

"Kindle, J'mes, and Horlog'n."

"Not Horlogan! Just Logan!"

"But do you remember who we are?" Kendall continued the question.

"You' here to vis' me?"

"Yes, we're here to visit you," Kendall said. "But, who are we?"

"Kindle, J'mes, and Jus' Log'n," Carlos slurred.

I laughed nervously. I'd take Just Logan over Horlogan any day.

"Yes, those're our names, but who are we in relation to you?"

Carlos blinked looking confused.

"We're your best friends, Carlos," James said patting Carlos on the shoulder.

"You've known Kendall and James since kindergarten, but we only met two years ago when I moved from Texas," I added.

Tears fell down Carlos's cheeks.

"I don' remmer."

You're probably wondering where Carlos's parents were in all this what with their son suffering a traumatic brain injury just the day before. Carlos was in the ICU and they have strict rules about patients. I learned later that Mrs. Knight discussed with them and during this session of visiting hours which was from 2 PM – 5 PM, they would let us spend it with him alone.

"Hello, boys," Dr. Grimes entered the room with a chart in his hands. "Just here to do a little check up on Carlos. Carlos, how are you feeling?"

"C'nfus'd," he replied.

"He doesn't remember who we are," Kendall answered.

Dr. Grimes nodded.

"It's common for patients with head injuries to suffer from temporary amnesia."

"Is there anything we can do," I asked.

"Just keep talking to him. Say his name. Say your name. There is nothing you can do to magically bring back his memories, but if you work with him they should come back in time." Dr. Grimes turned back to Carlos and began his routine checkup. "Your numbers appear to be getting better. Hopefully, we're on the right track to getting you healed. Keep fighting, Carlos."

"Carlos!" Katie exclaimed walking into the room with Mrs. Knight following trying to shush her.

"Carlos, this is my baby sister, Katie." Kendall placed a hand on her shoulder. "And that's my mom, Jennifer."

"Mrs. Knight," She corrected.

"Hi, K'die, Mizz Knigh'."

"The nurses gave us special permission to have all of us in the room together, but we need to be quiet," Mrs. Knight told us.

"What's wrong with Carlos?" Katie asked.

"He had an accident, honey. Remember yesterday we were waiting for him to come out of surgery?"

"Acc'dent?" Carlos slurred. "Wha' happ'n?"

"You fell off the bars on the playground," Kendall said, "and hit your head."

"'M I 'kay?"

I shook my head.

"That's why you're in the hospital, here," James answered.

"'M hurd?" A worried expression spread across Carlos's face.

The look on his face broke my already broken heart further. I nodded my head and patted his shoulder.

"'M I gon' be 'kay?" He asked.

The sound of his voice, sounding younger than Katie, brought tears to my eyes. Our Carlos was lost somewhere inside there and we had to get him out.

* * *

**This story is hard for me to write. It's not the topic so much as this. All my life the stuff I have written has been labeled as "cute." Hey, that's a good adjective. It's positive not negative. In 11****th**** grade I took a creative writing class and everything I wrote my teacher described it as cute. "That's cute!" "Cute Story!" Blah, blah, blah. I don't mind being known as the cute innocent one. Writing something like this I'm trying to make it not cute but more on the line of what it should be. But I fear that it'll still be "Oh, that's cute." If that's what you think that's what you think. If that's how I write that's how I write. But, really working on this I hope it helps expand my writing.**


	4. Chapter 4

We visited Carlos both Saturday and Sunday. Each time we returned we had to reintroduce ourselves to him. He wasn't getting better. He wasn't remembering anything. Many times he forgot that he had an injury and would do something to cause himself pain. All his bruises were turning yellow and they didn't hurt anymore, but his ankle was still in the aircast. He asked us a lot what happened to it.

Monday morning we returned to school. I sat in the third row from the door with Kendall behind me. Next to Kendall on his left was James and next to me on my left was supposed to be Carlos, but today his desk was empty.

School has always been something I enjoyed, especially science and math, but today I couldn't concentrate. I kept looking at that empty desk where my best friend should be.

"Logan?" Mrs. Donahue called.

"7?" I replied quickly. Everyone laughed.

"We're doing social studies now not math," she sighed. "OK, I'll let you all go a few minutes early."

Instead of running out the door like we did last Thursday the four of us walked somberly to the playground. Not feeling much like playing since this was the scene of the accident we shuffled our way to the swings, sitting in them but not swinging.

"Look." James pointed to the geometric dome climber.

I can't say I wanted to look, but I did anyway to see they had blocked it off. There was yellow police tape and what looked like a wooden fence impeding anyone's ability to get on the equipment.

"I think they're going to take it down," Kendall remarked.

"They should. I can't stand to look at it," I said scuffing my shoes in the dirt.

"I'm sorry," Kendall said softly.

"It's not your fault," I answered him. "Carlos is Carlos."

"I tagged him as it. I led him to that thing and I climbed it knowing he would follow."

"But you didn't make him stand on it. You didn't untie his shoe so he would lose his balance."

"I di—"

"Shut up!" James shouted. "It doesn't matter if it's Kendall's fault or not. Carlos got hurt. The end. I'll be glad when they take that stupid thing away."

We spent the rest of recess on the swings just doing nothing. We didn't feel like doing anything. Not having Carlos around really zapped us of our energy.

"Kendall," Mrs. Donahue called out as we were about to leave for the day. It was 3PM and we'd only have two hours with Carlos so we wanted to hurry and get to the hospital as soon as possible. "I've something for you to give Carlos. How is he?"

"He has amnesia," was all Kendall said. I don't blame him. None of us liked talking about Carlos's injury.

"Oh goodness. Well, maybe he'll remember this." Mrs. Donahue opened the top side drawer of her desk and pulled out Carlos's most prized possession. "I feel so bad. If I hadn't taken it away he wouldn't have gotten hurt as bad."

"It's the rules," I replied feeling a little weird comforting a teacher.

"We'll give this to him," Kendall said taking hold of the helmet.

"Do you think he'll remember it?" James asked as we headed toward the front of the school where my mom was picking us up today. Mrs. Knight couldn't afford to miss more work so my mom was taking us to the hospital and watching Katie.

"Hey, Kit Kat," James greeted Katie as he slid into the backseat next to her. She stuck her tongue out at him. I don't think she liked that nickname.

"Hey, Baby Sis," Kendall greeted sliding in next to James.

"Hey, Big Brother. Carlos's helmet!" She reached her hand out to take it from Kendall. We all laughed when she put it on her head.

"I wish I had a camera," Kendall said.

"I've got one." My mom dug her cell phone out of her purse and handed it to me. I opened the camera application and snapped a picture of Katie in Carlos's helmet and then one of her with Kendall.

"I can send them to your email address," I said.

"Really? That's awesome, thanks."

"Do that in the car. We need to get going," James ordered.

"Boys!" A nurse stopped as soon as we entered ICU. Mom had taken Katie to the cafeteria to get her a snack. She said she might come up to visit, but she would let us have our own time with Carlos. "Carlos had a seizure this morning."

"What?" James and Kendall asked.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He's sleeping now. It's common for sufferers of brain injuries to have seizures as they heal. You can visit him, but do let him rest. Don't be too loud and if he does wake up don't get him overexcited. Calm and relaxed." She looked at each of us. "Go on. It's okay."

Slowly we stepped into Carlos's room. Each day seemed to be a new adventure for us. James, Kendall, and I gathered around Carlos's bed where Carlos lay on his back asleep with his arms tightly wrapped around a stuffed animal.

"He looks so innocent," Kendall commented. He ran his fingers inside Carlos's helmet. "This isn't fair."

"It's life," I said.

"Some life." James sat down on the bed causing Carlos to shift a tad bit.

"Hey." Carlos turned his head and slowly opened his eyes. Even though he just woke up he looked exhausted. "J'mez, K'ndle, a' L'ge." His slurring was really bad today, probably from the seizure, but hey, he remembered our names!

"You remember us, Carlos?" Kendall asked.

"M' frienz."

"Yes, we are," James said excitedly.

"Vis' ev'y day, mus' be frienz."

"You remember we visit you every day!" James jumped up causing the bed to jiggle.

"Do you remember this?" Kendall brought the helmet out from behind his back.

"H'me'!"

"No!" We shouted when Carlos made to put it on his head after Kendall handed it to him.

Carlos pouted.

"You gotta let your head heal," I said.

"Sorry, buddy," James rubbed Carlos's foot.

"Ow." Carlos lifted the blanket. "Was 'at 'n foo?"

"An aircast," Kendall answered.

"You sprained your ankle and have to wear that until the swelling goes down," James explained. He turned to me. "Don't you think it's been a long time?"

"It's only been four days," I told him.

"Four days is a long time."

"B'n d'yz s'nze wha?" Carlos asked.

"Your head injury," Kendall explained.

"Hur' hea'?" tears formed in his eyes.

"Yes, you hurt your head," Kendall said comfortingly. "That's why you can't wear your helmet."

"Heal?"

"Yes, it should."

"Wh'n?"

"We don't know."

James, Kendall, and I sat on Carlos's bed and tried to comfort him. I think we were getting better at it because we had to do it each day. I wondered if he asked his parents the same questions and if they gave him similar answers. I could understand them not wanting to tell him the truth. It was hard for me to say it out loud to him and watch the tears build up in his eyes.

"Sl'pee," Carlos yawned.

"All right, Carlos," Kendall patted his leg. "We'll let you get some sleep." He turned to us. "Why don't we go down to the cafeteria and let him fall asleep?"

"Get some rest, Carlos," James said climbing off the bed.

"'K," Carlos said slipping into sleep already his eyes closed. He had loosened his grip on his stuffed animal but as he fell asleep his grip tightened again. In his left hand, held tightly, was his helmet.

* * *

**Watched **_**Big Time Bonus**_** the other day and I just want to say I think it's cute Carlos's stuffed animal had its own helmet. I love the little details the writers, producers, and everyone else put into the show. This chapter is not much, but it's a bridge to the next. **

**I have provided for your convience an interpretation of what Carlos said.**

"**James, Kindle, Logan."**

"**My friends."**

"**Visit every day. Must be friends."**

"**Helmet!"**

"**Ow. What's that on foot?"**

"**Been days since what?"**

"**Hurt head?"**

"**When?"**


	5. Chapter 5

It had been officially one week since Carlos's injury and he was still in ICU. That was to be expected of course. The day before we had been told he was scheduled for an early morning surgery to have his skull closed. The swelling in his brain had gone down enough that it was doing more damage keeping his skull open than it was helping. He hadn't another seizure since that one Monday and his slurring was getting much better.

His memory? Well, bits and pieces were coming to him, but not everything. He also didn't have all his motor skills. After his surgery he would have to start attending physical therapy. He had finally gotten his aircast off as the swelling in his ankle had completely resided.

Our parents let us stay home from school the day of Carlos's surgery. We told them we'd be completely useless with all our thoughts on our best friend. It's true. I've been completely useless this past week anyway. Good thing we haven't had any tests.

"You be good, Carlos," I said holding his hand. He had been prepped for surgery and was just about to receive his anesthesia IV. It was six o'clock in the morning and we three boys, my dad, and Carlos's parents were at the hospital for Carlos's surgery. Well, my dad was here to drop Kendall, James, and me off and then later he would head on to work. He cared about Carlos, but he couldn't take a day off work like I could school.

"Heal my heat?" He asked.

"Yes, this is going to heal your head," Kendall replied, holding Carlos's other hand. "They're going to close up your skull."

"My skull? Why is my skull op'n?"

"Long story, buddy," James said standing at the foot of the bed. "Do you remember us telling you how you hurt your head?"

Carlos nodded. He still didn't remember the accident, but he remembered us telling him about it.

"That's why your head is open and the doctors need to close it now," I finished.

"Will i' 'urt?"

"You'll be asleep."

"I wake up?"

"You shouldn't. They're going to give you anesthesia that will put you to sleep and as long as they feed it to you," Kendall pointed to the IV in Carlos's arm that was waiting for the drip, "you should remain asleep, I've been told."

"I 'no."

"It's going to be okay," I reassured.

"Carlos, are you ready?" A young male walked into the room. "I'm your anesthesiologist, Chris."

Carlos's gaze shifted from us to Chris to his parents and back and forth.

"It's going to be okay," his mom repeated taking his hand from me.

Silently, Kendall, James, and I walked out of the room leaving Carlos with his parents and Chris.

"He's going to be all right," Kendall reassured.

"Any surgery is a big deal," I countered.

"Yeah, but they aren't doing anything but close up his skull."

"Brain surgery, whether it's changing something in the brain or closing up his skull is a major deal."

"OK, I'm wrong. We don't know if he's going to be all right, Negative Ned."

"Who's Ned?" James asked causing me to laugh and Kendall to roll his eyes.

Thirty minutes later we were all sitting with my dad, Mrs. Garcia, and Mr. Garcia. Kendall was anxiously nibbling on his fingernails which were pretty much almost bitten down to the quick. James was sort of laying down on two chairs with his eyes closed, but I knew he wasn't asleep. He was mumbling something to himself, but I couldn't understand and didn't want to interrupt his privacy. I just sat there this time unable to really concentrate on anything.

"I have to go to work now, Logan." My father kissed my forehead. "Call me if anything bad happens." The look on my face must have scared him because he quickly added, "not that I expect anything bad to happen. I love you, son. You be good for Mr. and Mrs. Garcia."

"Love you, Dad."

Some time later, can't tell you how long as time had decided to take a stroll this morning the doctor approached us. He was pretty familiar with us so he knew exactly who to go to without having to call out the patient name.

Mr. and Mrs. Garcia held each other tightly. James sat up. Kendall stopped biting his nails or his fingers, which I actually think he might have moved on to (I've heard of people chewing on their knuckles but I didn't think Kendall had developed that habit).

"The surgery was a success. Carlos's brain is healing quite nicely. The swelling is down and looks to be decreasing every day so it should be back to normal right quickly. Due to the original swelling we had to cut out a portion of Carlos's skull to relieve pressure on the brain. To close it up we had to install a metal plate. There should be no side effects to having the plate in his head, but we do want to keep an eye on it to make sure everything is healing like it should."

"Carlos is a growing boy. Is it going to affect head growth or anything?" Mr. Garcia asked.

"It shouldn't cause his head to stop growing or grow funny. We'll have to check to it every so often to make sure it is not causing problems and of course if he's feeling any discomfort we'll check on that, too."

"Is he like magnetic now?" James asked.

"What?"

"You know, can I put a magnet on his head or something?"

"Oh," the doctor laughed slightly and then regained his composure. "No, I'm sorry. It's not the right kind of metal. But, you don't want it to be for then items might be sticking to him. It could affect his brain and other parts of his body." He stood up. "You may visit him now. He's still waking up from the anesthesia and should be pretty groggy. No more than two at a time." He looked at us boys. "Well, I will make an exception as I hear you've been very good visitors this week."

It was decided that Carlos's parents should go first because they were, well, his parents. So, we three boys sat in the waiting room waiting…again.

"He's okay?" James asked.

"I think so," I replied. "That's what the doctor said."

"He has a metal plate in his head," Kendall replied going back to biting his fingernails.

"Is that bad?" James asked.

"It's better than a hole," I answered.

"It's not going to affect his personality, is it?" James continued his questions.

"I don't know," Kendall answered. He continued biting his nails.

"Stop that!" James shouted. "I'm surprised you have any nails left at all."

"Does this bother you?" Kendall continued biting his nails louder and louder.

"Stop aggravating him," I intervened swiping Kendall's hand away from his mouth. "Stop letting things bother you," I said to James.

Instead of biting his nails, Kendall went to tapping his fingers on his cast. Our entire class, including Mrs. Donahue, had signed it. There was a white rectangle Kendall saved for Carlos when he was able to sign his name.

The three of us sat in silence for about ten minutes when the Garcias returned.

"He's awake and a little out of it. We thought we'd give you three some time with him now," Mr. Garcia said.

"Thank you," Kendall said as we stood up and headed toward ICU.

Entering the room we saw Carlos wide awake playing with his stuffed animal. He smiled at us.

"'Ey!"

"Hey, Carlos, how are you feeling?" Kendall asked.

"Goot."

"How's your head?" I asked.

"Tight," he replied with a goofy smile. Why that made him smile I do not know, probably because he was living in loopy land at the moment.

"Yeah, you got a metal plate in your head," James said.

"I to?" His eyes widened. "Iss bat?"

"No, it's not bad. It's good," Kendall answered.

"Goot? Metal plate iss goot." Carlos started laughing. "Y'know those things at airports. What're they call'? Those things you go n'n' they go beep beep beep."

"Metal detectors?" James laughed catching onto what Carlos was getting at.

"Yes, that. Will I, will I make 'em beep now?"

I smiled. If Carlos could crack a joke like that he really must be improving.

He must have spotted his helmet sitting on the bedside table because his eyes brightened about 100% and he asked, "Can I wear helm't?"

Unfortunately, we all had to say, "No." which took the goofy grin off his face and brought tears to his eyes. He reached up and patted the bandages on top of his head.

"You say my heat woult be heal'."

"No, Carlos. The surgery will heal your head, but it isn't going to be immediately healed right after. It's gotta take some time. I'm sorry," I said hopefully in a sympathetic tone.

"Tiret." He looked away from us.

"Would you like us to leave so you can sleep?" Kendall asked.

"No, not sleepee, tiret of bein' hurt."

"I know, Carlos, I know." Kendall rubbed his hand. "We want you to get better, too."

James wrapped his arms around Carlos.

"I need my buddy back," he wailed.

"Right here," Carlos replied.

"Not all of you," James said. I don't think he meant to say that loud enough for anyone to hear, but I did.


	6. Chapter 6

"We got a surprise for you," Mama Knight said as we entered the hospital about a week after Carlos's last surgery. "Shh, Katie!"

Katie bounced around as if she desperately wanted to tell us the secret. After her mom told her to keep quiet, she zipped her lips and held them tight.

James groaned. He probably didn't want another surprise like the pop quiz we had that day in science. I don't think he was prepared.

"It's a good surprise, I promise." Mrs. Knight led us in a direction we weren't used to going.

When Mrs. Knight led us to a set of elevators we had never see before James, Kendall, and I shared a look. Katie had a big smile on her face. I knew she was bursting to tell us the news.

When we got on the elevator it clicked in our brains. We jumped up and down with great joy.

"CARLOS IS OUT OF ICU!" The three of us shouted.

"Yes!" Katie fist pumped.

When the elevator door opened on the fourth floor we took off like rockets even though we really had no idea where we were going. We didn't know what room Carlos was in or even where that room would be located. Mrs. Knight led us to a set of double doors and when we opened them we got the biggest surprise of all.

At the other end of the hall was a ten year old Latino wearing his hospital gown, hospital socks, and a black helmet shuffling along with the aid of a metal walker and the help of a woman that I have come to decide looked a lot like Kelly, though we didn't know Kelly back then so we didn't know she looked like our future manager's assistant.

"Carlos!" James, Kendall, and I shouted. We had stopped running when we came to the double doors, but upon spotting him we picked up speed.

We ran into him, almost knocking him over, wrapping our arms around him. He was on his feet, walking! Yes, he was using a walker, but he was on his feet, not to mention the fact that he was no longer in ICU. Carlos was improving. This was a great sign.

"Careful," the nurse told us.

We let go of Carlos and he regained his balance.

"This my nurse, Marie." He carefully tapped her arm.

"Hi, I'm his occupational therapist." She smiled at us showing her big white teeth.

"This my friends, Kindle, James, and Logie."

"Logan," I said quickly out of reflex.

"I heard about you three diligently visiting Carlos every day. Carlos is lucky to have such great friends as you. All right, Carlos, we need to keep going. You can walk with us. We're going up and down this hall three times and right now we're on the second lap."

Carlos moved really slowly, but we didn't mind. We were just excited that he was walking at all. We didn't care if it took us an hour to get down the hall, which it did not. He moved a bit faster than that! James brought up an accident Jenny had that day in which a desk ended up completely turned over. How that happened I can't figure out, but this is Jenny Tinkler we're talking about. Anything's possible when it comes to her.

Carlos laughed at the story. It's great to see Carlos laugh. He remembered Jenny and her accident prone ways. There was a lot he did remember, actually, but he still didn't remember the accident. It was fine with me if he never remembered it and he might just never with the idea that his brain could be mentally blocking it out for him.

After the third time up and down (our second time, his third) we entered Carlos's hospital room, number 436. Inside we found Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Garcia talking, Katie trying to read a book she checked out of her school's library, and one of Carlos's little sisters, Nina short for Carolina, talking to a cloth doll.

"Carlos!" Nina ran to her brother, dropping her doll as he entered the room. Only four years old, she had been too young to visit him in ICU but she was very excited she could see him in his regular hospital room. She was also really happy that he remembered her. She had heard stories that Carlos didn't remember things, but he remembered his baby sister.

"Carlos did well today. Tomorrow, I want to move you up to four laps and we're going to start getting dressed," Marie said to Carlos and his mother. You'll need a t-shirt, a button down shirt with lots of buttons, a pair of regular blue jeans, socks, and sneakers with laces."

"Need help?" I asked as Carlos stood by his bed still holding onto the walker and his sister while looking confused.

"Let him try it himself," Marie suggested.

Carlos let go of his sister and the walker at the same time. He lost his balance and basically fell into his bed.

"Good job, Carlos!" Marie said even though Carlos looked like he wanted to cry. "He needs to try to do everything for himself first. It's the only way he'll get better. I'll see you tomorrow, same time, okay? Don't forget the clothes, Mom."

As soon as the therapist left Carlos burst into tears.

"I'm never get better, am I?"

James, Kendall, and I ran to his bed. Nina stood there looking scared. James picked her up and placed her on the bed next to Carlos after we helped him get situated comfortably.

"You're getting better all the time," Mrs. Garcia assured her son.

"Yeah, when you first came in your speech was pretty bad," James said.

"You couldn't do many things for yourself," Kendall continued.

"You didn't remember us," I said.

"And you couldn't wear your helmet," Katie added.

"Now look at you," Mrs. Knight finished.

"Don't be sad, Carlos," Nina contributed. She hugged her brother tightly.

"I'm no sad." He returned the hug and lightly tickled her side causing her to giggle.

* * *

**I bet you all figured out what the secret was before the boys did, right? ;)**

**I decided Carlos needed a younger sibling. Maybe he's got more. Maybe he doesn't (OK, maybe I kind of indicated that he does with the "one of the" line). But, Kendall can't be the only guy with a sibling!**


	7. Chapter 7

Carlos had been out of ICU for a month now. Every day he was learning to do more for himself. He was able to bathe himself, dress himself, and now he could walk without the aid of a walker or a cane. Three days ago he finally signed Kendall's cast, which was white when he got it, but now it's sort of brownish-yellow, which I don't think is normal, and of course black and colorful with the signatures.

The best part of Carlos being out of ICU was we could visit him at any time between 6AM – 10PM, when we weren't in school. Our parents weren't thrilled, but we would stay each day until dinner time, sometimes later if we got the Garcias to bring us home. If Kendall, James, and I could have moved into that hospital room with Carlos we would have.

This day was special for one thing. Carlos was coming home! He wasn't healed totally, but he was well enough to do the rest of his healing at home.

Kendall, James, and I met at Carlos's house an hour before he was due home, which also happened to be as soon as school got out. Mrs. Knight and Katie also came with us to watch Carlos's younger siblings; Cristian, Tina short for Cristina, and Nina, while their parents went to the hospital together. Who watched them the other times the Garcias were at the hospital? I don't know. Anyway, we gathered together to make a banner to hang up for Carlos's return.

"I can't wait to get this thing off." Kendall stuck the end of a thin paintbrush under his cast and scratched away. He did this with other things as well like pencils and a fork once. I was afraid whatever he used would break off in there and get stuck.

"That's a paintbrush, Kennall," Nina scolded wagging her finger. "We're not painting." And we weren't. We were using crayons and markers. I don't know where Kendall got the paintbrush from.

"How long do you have?" Cristian, Carlos's 8 year old brother, asked.

"One more week," he sighed. "It'll be great to get back to hockey."

What's funny is during the whole Carlos ordeal not once did anyone think of hockey. Hockey was Kendall's life and it's still a pretty big part even though we're busy with Big Time Rush, but it just became so unimportant when Carlos got hurt.

"Let's put this over the stairs," Six-year-old Tina declared once we were done with the sign that read "Welcome Home, Carlos! Love, Cristian, Tina, Nina, James, Kendall, Logan, Katie, Mrs. Knight." That seems really long for a banner, but the names were small signatures underneath the welcome home part.

Mrs. Knight helped us tape the banner over the balcony portion of the staircase so that anyone who walked in the front door would see it. As soon as she had it put up a car pulled in the driveway.

"Carlos!" Kendall said not too loudly to us running to the front door and opening it widely.

When the car pulled to a stop the left back door opened and Carlos jumped out of the car wearing his helmet proudly.

"Carlos, slow down! The doctor said you still need to take it easy!" His mother shouted after him.

"Welcome home!" All nine of us shouted.

At the request of his mother, Carlos turned his run into a fast walk and when he got to the front door he grabbed Kendall, James, and me in a hug. Tina and Nina wrapped their arms around their oldest brother. Cristian hung back with Katie and Mrs. Knight.

"All right, let's give Carlos some breathing room," Mr. Garcia said entering the house with his wife. He carried in Carlos's suitcase. I didn't realize how much stuff could accumulate in a hospital room.

Mr. and Mrs. Garcia led Carlos to the living room with all of us following. Carlos was home, but he wasn't the same Carlos. Usually he would be bouncing around with his siblings, bouncing off furniture and walls, but this Carlos was subdued and made to sit on the couch.

"The doctor said you need to take it easy," Mrs. Garcia reminded him. "If you hit your head again you could cause further damage to your brain."

"Aw, man!" Carlos whined.

We sat there with Carlos for about an hour watching TV. We weren't sure what to do with him. We didn't want to cause him any harm that he had to go back to the hospital. We were happy to have him out.

"Sleepover!" Kendall shouted suddenly.

"But, it's a school night," I said.

"No school tomorrow," James said. "Teacher workday." I think he had all school holidays memorized by heart.

"Then it's decided," Kendall said.

Kendall, James, and I went into the kitchen where the parents were talking.

"What do you think, Sophia?" Mr. Garcia asked his wife after we asked for permission.

"Well, the doctor said Carlos needs to remain calm and you know how he is with the boys."

"You also know how he's been without the boys," Mr. Garcia added.

"Yeah, okay. What do you think, Jennifer?"

Kendall, James, and I looked expectantly at Kendall's mom.

"If they promise not to get Carlos wound up. But, it's not up to me. James and Logan need permission from their parents, too."

James easily got permission from his mom. She loved him to pieces, but she had to work late and didn't like the idea of him being home alone in that big house of theirs, so she was very willing to let James sleepover at the Garcias. My mom was much harder to convince. She thought Carlos needed his rest. We'd been spending too much time with him and not enough time with our families. I got her with the line that none of them had injured their brain recently. Then she talked to Mrs. Garcia and decided if it was okay with them it was okay with her.

"Carlos, you're sleeping on the bottom bunk," Mrs. Garcia told Carlos as we gathered in his room to get ready for the night. Carlos shared not just a room but a bunk bed with Cristian. Usually, Carlos slept on top and Cristian slept on the bottom. "I don't want to worry about you falling out of bed and hurting yourself."

"I wear my helmet." He tapped his helmet for emphasis.

Cristian looked at his mom with wide eyes. He wasn't rambunctious like his older brother and I don't think he liked sleeping on the top bunk. Actually, I think he was afraid of heights, but he'd never mention it.

"Honey, you don't need to sleep with your helmet on."

"It's bad for my head. It's always bad for my head. Everything is bad for my head."

"Honey, you're still healing." Carlos's mom pulled him into a hug.

"Fine, I'll sleep on the bottom."

"I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom."

"I'm so glad you're home."

"Me, too."

"Here we go." Mr. Garcia entered the room with three sleeping bags—two were blue and one was pink! I figured one had to be Tina or Nina's while the others were Carlos and Cristian's.

We laid the bags as close to the bunk bed as possible and frankly, as close to each other as possible. It's not so much that we loved each other so much we wanted to be this close while sleeping, but there wasn't much room for us to put the sleeping bags anywhere else.

"I'm so glad you're home," Mr. Garcia wrapped his arms around his son. "I love you, Son."

"I love you, too, Papi."

Mr. Garcia looked at his other son in the top bunk. "I love you, too, Cristian."

Cristian nodded. I think he told his father he loved him, but he spoke so quietly it was hard to tell.

"Cristian, I'll switch with ya if you don't want to sleep up there," Kendall offered as we snuggled into our covers and sleeping bags. Carlos had his helmet on even though his mother told him not to sleep in it.

"That's okay, thanks."

"Oh, hey, I forgot to give you this." Kendall pulled an envelope out of his bag and handed it to Carlos. No, we didn't go home to get our stuff for the sleepover. That's his backpack from school.

Opening the envelope Carlos revealed the card from school we had all signed that day. All the kids knew he was coming home and this was sort of their "Welcome home" present.

"'Do you think you'll remember us? Heidi Long,'" Carlos read. "I don't know who that is."

"She's the girl—" James began.

"I know, who sits in front of me," Carlos finished. "I was just kidding." He stared at the card in silence for a moment. "What if I get held back?"

"What?" We all asked, even Cristian.

"How much school have I missed?"

"Um," I did the math in my head. "Six weeks."

"Yeah, I thought I was supposed to get my cast off this week, but the doctor thinks another week would make my arm stronger," Kendall muttered.

"I'm gonna miss more, too, since I'm not healed enough yet," Carlos continued ignoring Kendall.

"We're not gonna let you get held back, buddy," James said.

"We'll do everything in our power to make sure you pass fifth grade," Kendall added.

"I'll tutor you as much as possible," I offered.

"Thanks, guys."


End file.
